Are you selling a physical product? If so, you might be familiar with warehousing, which is the way you store your products for whatever reason. Items end up in warehouses before they’re needed for assembly, or they’re stored there for online purchase. Sometimes warehouses are a stop on the way from the manufacturer to an end user. For instance, toys made in China can be shipped over to a warehouse in America. Then they’re stored in the warehouse until they’re needed on store shelves for the holiday shopping season in November and December.
So how do warehouses work? Warehouse management involves several processes, procedures and protocols.
What are some of the basics of warehousing?
Receiving refers to how products are accepted into a warehouse. When products come into a warehouse, someone records what came in and when it came in.
Next is stowing or putaway. Warehouses have people figure out where items go once they’re accepted into the building. Items need to be “putaway” to a proper place within the warehouse, to be accessed later.
When a product is needed from a warehouse, then it’s time for “picking,” where a person or machine goes and finds the product and retrieves it so it can eventually leave the warehouse. At this time, checking/verification might be done, to make sure the “picked” product is the correct item and it’s in good shape to send out.
Finally, a product gets packed up to leave the warehouse and then shipped off to another destination, oftentimes the end user/buyer. Labels and boxes are involved in packing and shipping.
There are a lot of things going on at any warehouse. It’s like a puzzle with a lot of pieces that have to come together.
Do you need help finding the right warehouse for your products? Looking for freezer, dry, cooler and HazMat warehouses across North America? Affiliated Warehouse Companies can help; Call 732-739-2323 for more information.
